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We have a team of 5 riders heading to Ensenada next Thursday, this is a very exciting time not only for me being a first timer, but for the whole team since they did it last year.

We have a to give a very special thank you to Mexican Energy drink company, Patria Energy, without their large donation, this would not be possible for us, this is an extremely expensive endeavor without their kind and generous help. Also, on top of Patria Energy, we have some local small companies as well as some big companies helping us out. Some of our very own friends from our small community of dirt bikers have stepped up to give a hand.

Cycle Shack North has helped us with some spare parts, some gear, canopies, and several other key items.

XC Gear sent us a really awesome bar clamp set up, The Mako 360 with over-bar mount for a steering damper.

Fly Racing and WPS will have us all looking FLY in our fresh FLY gear for race day.

Frank Novelli at Banner Supply gave us a generous donation.

Austin and Brent Jones at Brent Grinding gave us a generous donation.

PowerFab Autosports gave us a generous donation.

TORCS race series of course got us hooked up too, Thanks Jackie and Gil

Brian Johnson at TJ's Cycle is giving us $1,000,000.00 for beer.

My companies Regate Technology and Tech-Seal International have given us a great deal of help with logistics and traveling expenses.

Bourque Sales & Services has given a generous donation.

We appreciate all of the support that we can get from our local racing/riding community, you will be able to follow along with us via GPS tracking on the Score International app, the event will be live streamed as well as televised in the USA via El Rey television.

What a treat this is and a once in a lifetime, bucket list item for me.

I will put together a list of links and other rather crucial information for you all should you decide to follow along with us.

At this point, our race course is 540 off road miles, plus any asphalt sections that we may run, these are not counted as race course miles, we will begin the race at 3:30 am June 2, 2018, the Trophy trucks will take off at 8:00 am and WILL definitely catch up to us.

Thank you again in advance for the support for our small racing community.

We were emailed a ton of information today, we're only 1 week away from leaving Houston, as the excitement continues to build, so do the nerves, and anxiety. There is so much to do, to think about, to learn and memorize. (I will add pics in another post).

If you guys care to read through, feel free but it is a lot of info, mostly irrelevant but, very interesting nonetheless.

A few things to check out for sure are
1. Stella III system, extremely interesting piece of equipment to learn (short 7 minute video)
2. Course notes, these don't mean a whole lot to me at this point but, I will need to get familiar with them.
3. Racer brief, it's very intense with loads of info, rules etc.

If you guys have any specific questions about anything, post em up, I'll do my best to fill you in.

We've also had 2 new developments this week, 1 of our riders hurt his ankle ice skating, not sure if he'll be able to ride yet but, we have 1 back up rider who's going primarily as a driver of a truck, we're giving him a stint in the race either way.

Also, our main sponsor, Patria Energy has a family member who is supposedly a factory dirt bike racer of some form, they want him in on the team, so, we're adding him into the rotation, in order to make this work, we've decided to forego racing the Sportsman Moto class and jump into the Pro 40 class. The sportsman classes have a mandatory 80 mile shortcut, not that we're in the Pro class, we'll have to run that extra 80 mile section which works great since we're having to add an additional rider.

Pro class mind you cost more than the Sportsman class, we must pay an additional $400.00, not a problem, we have just enough funds to cover this.

A few of our sponsors
Patria Energy stepped up and gave us basically our whole budget for the race event

ALL of the others have given some gracious donations of $$$$

Cycle Shack North in Conroe has been instrumental as well, they've given us a tremendous amount of help and discounts to make sure that our bike stays in good running order, not only our race bike but, we each ride our own bikes for the pre ride, Cycle Shack North has made sure that we all have fresh filter oil, chain lubes, air filters, oil filters and plenty of sweet T-shirts for the trip. Thanks to them, we have a couple Nice, New, Shiny, Shoei VFX-Evo helmets...

HBD has made sure that each of our bikes has the awesome, freshest graphics you can get.

XC Gear stepped up and sent us a beautiful, American made MAKO 360 bar clamp set up equipped with an over bar mount for our trusty steering damper. I met the man who created the Mako 360 in 2016 at the Oklahoma NEPG (AMA National Enduro) race, super duper awesome guy, we had lots in common and quickly became friends (when he asked me to grab his Copenhagen from his camel back for him, I knew he was the one), the whole story could take up a few chapters at minimum but, Lance Smith and his awesome wife Lisa sure have been good to me and us over the last 2 years, because of him, I've met a ton of factory Pro riders, and some who will someday be the same factory tents riding factory bikes. He makes THE best foot pegs for dirt bikes money can buy, also, he makes the best vibration reduction bar mount clamps for all sorts of motorcycles, whether it be a street bike, ATV or your ugly, old Honda (I'm a die hard KTM fan). Since I've been running his Mako 360, my arm pump has 100% completely been eliminated, and this is no bull , I promise his Mako 360 is exactly what he claims it to be.

Fly Racing made sure that we're all in Fly, Fresh, new gear on race day, I love Fly racing gear, it fits me by far the best of all other gear, my favorite Fly racing pants doesn't even have the material on the backside any longer, I continue to wear them. They gave us all Full sets of gear, hats, more stickers than you need to cover your truck with and some sweet squeeze bottles for BEER, I mean water!! Fly supports a whole Texas race Series (TORCS) and several of our finest motorcycle dealers, if you need some new dirt gear, please give them a try..

We're very happy to represent each and everyone of these companies, along with several others who came on board, this trip would not be what it is without each of these playing a role in our adventure.

It's hard for me to keep up with absolutely everything going on for this effort, and I'm handling just a small portion of the weight that this brings upon 10 people, it takes a big team to run this race, and it takes even a bigger team of people to step in and up, to help us make sure that we are successful.

Stay Tuned as I will update as often as I can. I have limited platforms to post or write to, I've been on MH since it first hit the internet, I will always share my adventures for those members who share my same 2 wheeled passion.

Man. Never would have thought the dirt riding would have created this monster...you've come along way from your debut on a Honda 150 running a rear slick. Keep at it bud!!! Never heard of Patria Energy drink (I do coffee rather than energy drinks), but props to them and other sponsors for helping out the team. Keep updates coming... there's at least 1 guy reading. Good luck and twisty wrists for the Patria Energy team!

BTW, your DOB indicates you've been eligible for that pro40 class for a minute now.

Cant wait to see some of the photos. So do you all share one bike and have a back up bike? The whole team follows in a convoy on the truck? Sidearms carried for bandidos? This must be like a dream for you guys.

really curious as I get arm pump in the first had lap at the dirt track.

I swear it cured my arm pump issue, I did have to pay for my Mako 360 mount so, I'm not chatting it up because he gave me one, I paid for the one on my race bike. The pictured Mako 360 above was a donation to the Baja race bike.

Cant wait to see some of the photos. So do you all share one bike and have a back up bike? The whole team follows in a convoy on the truck? Sidearms carried for bandidos? This must be like a dream for you guys.

I'll post photos as I can, I don't have an international line but if I can manage wifi, I'll have my lap top.

As for answers to your questions:
1. Bikes, we can each ride our own bike for Pre Ride only, for the race, we are only allowed 1 frame/vin. We can have as many parts/parts bikes as we want. We must finish on the same bike we start on.

2. Chase trucks, we will have 3 trucks manned with minimum of 2 persons per truck, we have a total of 10 people, 5 riders, and 5 non riders with one of the non riders scheduled for a section of race mileage. This is where I but out of the details, I'm horrible at logistics and horrible at navigation so, we have a guy who has absolutely everything laid out, race order by person, with mileage details, pit stop mileage and locations. Each truck will have designated pit areas, never will there be more than 1 vehicle at 1 location at a time between the start and the finish of the race, the trucks will be spread out. Chase vehicles are not allowed on the course, and are not allowed to ride backwards on the course, this will be grounds for immediate DQ.

3. Sidearms, unfortunately NO, I carry daily but, I can't cross the border with a firearm nor can I have ammo, or even spent brass. The owner of the race bike has been an HPD officer over 20 years, he too must leave his service weapon behind.

As for the dream, yes, it's a dream for all of us and as Dbuck mentioned, I never thought 7 years ago when I bought my first dirt bike as an adult that I would even think about racing Baja. Now, here I am, chasing a dream that many can't, I won't take it for granted and I will have to calm myself while there. I'm a bit of wild rider, this is an extremely dangerous event, participant/s WILL die and I pray that I make it back home in the exact same conditions I was in the day before I left home.

Our number one priority and goal is to be safe, no injuries.
Finish the race, and do our damnedest to be on the top step of the podium, no matter what class we end up riding.

As the sun rises and sets, plans are ever changing.

Stay tuned guys, and THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH for being apart of this with us, me sharing this with you is part of my race experience as well.

I hope to have many more posts of enjoyable reading, some may be long, some may be short but, I aim to keep you all informed every day as long as I am physically capable of doing some typing.